Better Late than Never

Today is June 19. For most of us, that doesn’t mean much. But to our African American brothers and sisters, this day rivals July 4. On July 4, we celebrate our independence as a nation, but even after we declared our freedom from England in 1776, not everyone in America was free. It would take another 87 years and a civil war before black men and women were also granted their freedom in America. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation officially declared the end of slavery in America. On that day, everyone in America was technically free. The only problem is, not everybody knew it.

Bad news travels fast, but good news tends to take a more scenic route. That’s why over two years later, there were still slaves living in rural parts of America who still hadn’t heard that they were free. Every day, they got up and went out to labor in the fields as slaves. It didn’t matter that Abraham Lincoln had declared them to be free – until they’d heard the good news, they were in every way still enslaved.

That’s why June 19, or Juneteenth, is such a big deal in the African American community. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that word finally reached the last pocket of slaves living in Texas. On that day, they learned that the great civil war was over, and so was their bondage. They were free.

Admittedly, there’s a big difference between being free and living in freedom. And as the current racial unrest so powerfully reminds us, we still have a long way to go as a country. But as a pastor, I can’t help but think of some other people who are still living in slavery waiting to hear the good news that the means of their freedom has been secured.

I’m talking about spiritual freedom from sin and death. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed and sin came crashing into God’s good creation, humanity has lived in bondage to sin, separated from the one who created us in His image. And no amount of sin-management or rule keeping could ever break those chains. But then, two-thousand years ago, Jesus took up his cross and signed an Emancipation Proclamation in his own blood, declaring emphatically that sin no longer needs to be our task-master, shame no longer needs to shackle our hearts. We prodigals can come home.

This is good news of great joy for all humanity. And many of us have embraced this truth and begun to live out of it. But despite the effort of countless generations before us to carry this message across oceans and continents, there are still people living on this planet who don’t realize they can be free. And they’re not just in remote villages. There are people living in our own neighborhoods who have yet to hear the good news.

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote the following words: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15)

The Emancipation Proclamation was life changing for the men and women enslaved all across America, but the message of freedom that Jesus entrusts to us to proclaim is so much greater than that. It has eternal ramifications. And He’s entrusted it to those of us who have tasted and seen that life in Christ is true freedom.

This is the best news ever. Let’s not keep it to ourselves.